Young Jamaicans hustle to get out of the ghetto
Negril. Alan Lyons (photo Jean-Cosme Delaloye) is a proud young man. The 29-year old Jamaican works as a lifeguard in a resort in Negril. He earns a decent living. But he needs more money to finish the house he has been building for the past three and a half years in New Hope. He therefore hustles to get another income. “Nothing illegal”, he says. No marijuana, no sex. He explains he works on construction sites, sells fruit and vegetables. He speaks about the “cycle of life” in Jamaica. “It is all about opportunities”, he says. “When you come from the ghetto, you have to make the most out of what you have or of what you can get”. According to a poll published in June 2007 by the Gleaner, 44% of 18-24-year old Jamaicans who are on the job market, cannot find jobs. 8% are so discouraged that they are no longer even looking for a job. “In my case, I did not have a lot but you have to do it with what you have, Alan says. For some other guys who did not grow up rich, there is nothing to do. Even if you go to school and come back to your community, it is difficult because our government has nothing in place”. Early December 2007, the new Jamaican Prime minister Bruce Golding has called on young Jamaicans to strive for excellence. For Mr Golding, young Jamaicans must have a different mindset. “There are too many of our young people who are content to just get back, who are satisfied with mediocrity,” the Prime Minister said at an award ceremony for young Jamaicans, who had excelled in 2007. “There are too many who are prepared to resign themselves to failure. It doesn’t have to be that way. Mr Golding addressed some of the root causes of the problems facing Jamaican youth. “We have deprived young people of the sense of the community. We have deprived so many of our young people of an understanding of what family is. There are so many of them that have been brought up in an environment in which they don’t know what a stable family is,” Mr. Golding said. Some experts see the National Youth Service as a way to fight the recent crime wave in Jamaica. The program was set up in 1973 to tackle youth issues and help make a meaningful impact on the number of unattached youth (unemployed and not enrolled in school) in Jamaica, which now total over 140,000. The extremely high levels of crime, committed mostly by unskilled, unemployed young males, have prompted calls for a mandatory program with a military component. Some Jamaicans see it as a way to teach young men discipline and values. For Alan Lyons, the communities can help young people overcome the lack of opportunities. In villages such as New Hope, a lot of boys are part of a crew. They sometime share dinner, play cricket or football together. And they are hustling somewhere in or around Negril. Alan underscores the need of local solidarity. Most services are available in the community and people from the same village help each other to build houses for instance. “We do it as a community, Alan say. We still pay each other but if we get an outside guy, he is going to charge us a lot more money”. “Everything around us here is a form of hustling, he adds. Agriculture is hustling.” Alan says some grow marijuana to make a living. “If you are poor, it is a form of living, he adds. Many work to farm it but it is very secretive because it is not legal”. Alan hopes to get enough money to be able to help raise his daughter, who now lives in England with his ex-girlfriend. He shows a house next to his. In one of the walls, there is a door, which seems to lead to nowhere. “In 5 months or so, the owner might have saved enough money to build another room, Alan adds. The door will then lead to somewhere”. But in order to do that, Alan says the owner of the house will have to keep on hustling. Jean-Cosme Delaloye / Negril CommentsYou must be logged in to post a comment. |
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